


Deals Struck

by Takada_Saiko



Series: Fallen [32]
Category: Wynonna Earp (TV)
Genre: Gen, Pre-Series, Robert becoming Bobo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-07
Updated: 2018-02-07
Packaged: 2019-03-15 04:41:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,361
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13605747
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Takada_Saiko/pseuds/Takada_Saiko
Summary: Pre-series. A few months after the Revenants are first resurrected, Josiah Earp comes into town.





	Deals Struck

 

"You've looked better."

Robert offered a glare at the smirking man perched on a barstool next to the one he had just taken and motioned to the barkeep for what was quickly becoming his usual. "All I ask is that they let me have as close to peace as I can find here. Is that really too much?"

"For them? Absolutely. They're restless. Driven. Perhaps for a reason."

The whiskey slid across the bar and Robert shot Lou a questioning look. The other man smirked a little around his glass. "Don't tell me you didn't feel it. The shift. We all did. You're no better and you know it."

He'd felt something, he knew, but what it was he hadn't known. If Lou did or the smug bastard was just fishing for information, he couldn't be sure. He wasn't sure he trusted former - not so former, in all likelihood - con artist. He had caught a bullet from Wyatt when he had tried to squirm free of a trial. He hadn't made it to the edge of the town he had been in, and had woken up in Purgatory a handful of years later. He was a clever man, but so was Robert. An alliance did not mean he should trust him.

"I hope you have as good as you got," Lou chuckled, motioning to Robert's broken nose. "They're not going to stop coming, not now that they know what you can do."

His mind flashed to recent memories splattered with metal and Revenant blood. "The ones that jumped me will."

Lou grinned toothily. "See, and that's how we climb to the top."

"Is it we?" the blue eyed man asked, quirking one off-coloured eyebrow. There had been a handful of physical changes he had come across since he had been dragged back up from hell, the strange white patch in his beard and across the opposite eyebrow only two. It was the brand burned into his back that bothered him the most so far. Any time he used his new powers he had acquired from the curse, it burned deeply, like it was reminding him just who he was now in all of this.

"Of course it is," Lou answered cheerfully. "I have a few tricks up my sleeve."

Robert chuckled roughly into his glass. "I'm sure you do." The door on the other side of the bar opened and he glanced up to see who was coming in. It wasn't a large town and the faces quickly became familiar. He had a good idea which ones were local, which were Revenants that had popped up a few months earlier, and the rare traveller passing through. The man that entered he knew only at a distance. Barkley. Something Barkley, but he'd never actually bothered with his first name. He was Purgatory's sheriff and in so far over his head in the last few months that he might have drowned several times over.

He had a man with him, still on the younger side of thirty with wide, curious eyes that immediately took in every corner of the saloon. "Well, this place hasn't changed. This was always my father's first place to stop when we came into town." A familiar sort of smile crossed his lips. "I see nothing's slowed down here."

"Who's gonna care about a little town like Purgatory anyway? I ain't gonna be the one to try to stop 'em from drinkin'," Barkley laughed, looking around nervously even as he did. Eyes flashed red here and there around the saloon and Robert could almost feel the unease in the air. "How long you stayin' for, anyway?"

"I plan to put down roots here."

"You lookin' for a job?"

The young man's smile broadened a little. "Trying to offload yours?"

"Might be."

"You're staring."

Robert flinched at the voice close to his ear and he turned to see Lou grinning like a shark. "Just want to make sure no one does anything foolish."

His companion snorted at the statement. "Most of these idiots don't know what they're sensing, but I reckon you do. He _looks_ like Wyatt Earp, doesn't he?"

Almost as if on cue the sheriff's visitor looked over, finding Robert staring. Their gazes locked for just a moment and he could feel the brand heating on his back. The Heir. Wyatt's son. He didn't even know the boy's name, but less than five minutes watching him laugh and joke with Barkley didn't give him any confidence that the other Revenants wouldn't tear him to pieces. Possibly right there at the very bar in which they all sat, and Robert wouldn't be able to do a damn thing about it. Not the way that things were right then.

Well, that wasn't entirely true. There was one thing he could do.

"Where're you going?" Lou asked, genuinely confused as Robert paid for his single drink and stood without finishing it.

"I don't have to watch it happen," he answered gruffly, rounding the bar towards the door and feeling the young Earp's eyes on him the whole way. He refused to meet them as he passed by, focused instead on the door. He wasn't sure exactly where he was heading, but he knew he had to get out of there.

The door shut behind him and he didn't hear anything for a long moment as he started down the street. He thought he was home free, of a sort, until he heard it open again behind him and an unfamiliar voice yelled out, "Robert!"

It was everything he could do not to turn. He didn't even flinch, but just kept walking. Less than a handful of people knew his real name in this town anymore, and he had no interest in encouraging the young Earp to call it out for all of Purgatory to hear.

Without warning he turned down an alley, finding it blessedly empty, and he decided he would cut around and back towards the woods at the outskirts of town where he had been camping. Alone. Which was how he handled much of his life these days.

Wyatt's son just wouldn't give up though. He quickened his pace, and Robert would have had to start jogging to lose him, so instead he turned on his heel, swiveling around and putting on a glare he tended to reserve for other Revenants that had decided to try their hand at besting the one they kept hearing about that could move metal. "Stop following me."

The young man stuttered to a stop, almost running straight into him. He straightened then, adjusting the hat he wore on his head, and instead of the fear that should have greeted Robert, the idiot Earp smiled. "It _is_ you. I knew it was the moment I spotted you. Robert Svane."

"Ain't nobody in Purgatory by that name," the Revenant growled.

The Earp Heir blinked owlishly at him and Robert found himself staring into a set of eyes the exact same shade as Wyatt's had been. He looked for hints of Josephine in the boy, but fell just short with every feature. He was all Wyatt, young and brash and full of life. He felt his chest tighten at the thought and for a moment he wasn't sure if he was angry or hurt or just very, very lonely.

"I know it's you," Wyatt's son pressed, taking a step closer and Robert took one back. "I'm Josiah Earp. My father was Wyatt Earp. He had this old photo and he told me about you. When I was old enough he told me everything about Clootie and what you two did to stop him… what _you_ did to help stop him. I've been to your grave."

The words didn't match his excitement and it left the older man feeling sick. He pushed it down, his voice cold and hard. "Then you know Robert Svane's long dead. Gotta gravestone to prove it."

"But you were killed by Peacemaker, so you're back."

"Is that what Wyatt told you would happen?" He was struggling now to keep his composure. He'd wondered if Wyatt knew what he'd done to him. Maybe that's why he had never come back. Guilt or judgement for what he would become. It was hard to say with him. All Robert knew was that he had died for the man, died to help clean up the mess he'd left in his wake, and Wyatt had never come back, no matter how many letters had promised that he would. He'd never even warned him. If it hadn't been for Constance Clootie - and he didn't miss _that_ particular irony - Robert would have found out about the curse only when hell's flames tore at him.

"You're a Revenant, right? A demon. Father said-"

"If you know what I am you know what I can do to you."

"But you won't. You were my father's friend. His close friend. Does no one know?"

"And I'd like to keep it that way, so go. Get. You shouldn't have come to Purgatory to begin with."

"But I have to end the curse. It's my responsibility now. Look, I even have-"

Robert backpedaled at the site of Wyatt's gun pulled from Josiah's holster and the barrel glowed dangerously as it neared him. He could feel the burn of the brand on his back and the world tinged red around him. "Put that _away_ ," he snapped, pushing the barrel down and away from him with his powers. "You need to go."

"I have to stay. I promised him on his deathbed."

Robert snorted. So Wyatt had guilted his own son to his death. Wonderful. He shook his head and turned.

"Please, you were his friend. Won't you help me? I need help to end this curse."

"Only way to end it is to kill all seventy-seven that your dear ol' father put down with that thing, me included," Robert snarled. "No thank you. I already gave up my life once for Wyatt." He closed his eyes, frustration rolling through him like a storm brewing. Finally, he let them open again, and when he did he fixed a hard gaze on the young man. "We were friends once, and for that friendship I'll give you one piece of advice: They're gonna tear you to shreds here, boy. Get out of here before they can. You do what your daddy did and you cross that line and you _never_ look back."

Josiah stood there in the alleyway looking like he'd been physically struck. He didn't answer and Robert didn't give him time to regain his composure. He'd take the advice or he'd get himself killed. If it was the latter, he didn't want to be there when it happened.

* * *

He slept in fits and starts, every little noise waking him. He hadn't been found in his latest hiding place where he'd pitched his tent, but that didn't mean that he'd be safe for long. They were bloodthirsty and had been more than before. Now he knew why. Josiah Earp was here and he was of age. The first Heir had appeared in Purgatory and even though the demons had been resurrected months before, now the curse could begin in full.

Half the time when he slept, he dreamt of fire and burning and hell. He woke swallowing his own screams, terror gripping him down to what was left of his tattered soul. Those same images pulled at him that night. He fought against it, but the sound of a twig under a boot had him flying off his thin pallet on the hard ground, ready for whatever fight was about to be forced on him. He was at the intruder's throat before he was really awake, his eyes burning and a snarl on his lips.

Josiah Earp let out a startled breath, his hands held up in a non-threatening manner. "I'm not here to hurt you. I just want to talk."

"Do you have a death wish?" Robert demanded, loosing his grip so suddenly that Josiah nearly fell.

He leaned back against the tree for support, his fingers rubbing at the place where his father's friend's hand had been wrapped around his throat just moments before. "No, I just needed to talk to you, and you obviously didn't want to talk in town."

"I didn't want to talk at all." He loosed what might have been a growl, low and frustrated, and moved to the simmering fire to kick dirt over it, smothering the last burning embers. He needed to pack up and move. Josiah would have led people to him, if the boy had meant to or not.

The young fool reached out, catching Robert by the coat sleeve. "Please. Just a moment of your time."

"You shoulda been long outta Purgatory by now."

"I'm not going to run. I'm not afraid."

Robert snorted, bending to pack his scant few possessions he had acquired.

"You said my father left Purgatory and never looked back, but that's not true." There was a pause as Robert stilled, fingers buried in a thin blanket. "My father came back here again and again until he got too sick to make the journey. He brought me here to show me what it was like. I've met these people. I know them. Ol' Carl Barkley? I've known him since I was five years old. Every time we'd go out to your grave and he'd tell me about his friend Robert Svane and what a good man he was. How much he gave to-"

A rough, pained chuckle left the Revenant. "What? He feel guilty when he realized what he'd done to me? Wanted to paint it up real nice?"

"He cared about you a great deal."

Robert sighed, his expression solemn. He hadn't hated Wyatt before his trip to hell, even when the man had left him to die. After the flames had bit and burned at what was left of who he had been and had spit out something entirely different on the other side, he wasn't quite sure how he felt. Some moments he thought he missed him. Those long talks about the good and the bad that men did and what drove them to it. About who they were and what they wanted to accomplish with their time in this world. Then, there were other moments when the mere thought of Wyatt Earp made him see red, made that brand burn deep and hot, and something deep inside his charred soul wanted to drag him back to the living just to rip him apart himself. As he looked back at the young man that looked so much like his father, he felt that pull. But that was the curse warping him to its bidding. If there was anything real in it, he wasn't sure, and he hated that the most.

"All my life I've tried to live up to my father's legend. I traveled to Europe and fought a war trying to live up to it, but this is it. This is what I've been working towards for nearly thirty years. I'm _meant_ to be here, Robert. I understand that that may sound absurd to you, but it doesn't make it any less true. I promised him I'd do everything in my power to end this curse, and I think you can help me."

"You're asking me to help you send me back to hell."

The words caused the young Earp to pause and he shifted from foot to foot for a moment, his eyes darting away before returning to meet Robert's gaze. "I read… a lot. I've studied religious materials and the occult and anything that I could get my hands on that I thought might help me to break this curse so that when I have my own children, they don't have to…. I _can't_ believe that a curse muttered out on a demon's dying breath was so airtight that there is only one way to break it. If you help me, if you can find a way to help me, I will do everything in my power to make sure you walk free at the end of this. Alive. As you should be. You didn't deserve this."

He had to remind himself to breathe as he stood there in the woods, his camp in shambles around them and staring into those grey eyes with so much hope. Hope would only set them up for disappointment. Hope would get them killed. Hope would….. He swallowed hard. "This town is in chaos. Even outlaws look for leadership of a sort. The strongest of the pack. I have an… acquaintance that has been pushing me to take steps to take that role."

"Could you?"

The question was honest. Josiah had no way to know. "Maybe," Robert breathed out. "Some of us got powers when we woke up here. I've seen a couple others, but nothing like mine. They keep comin' at me and nobody's been able to beat me yet." He shook his head, his lips quirking up at one corner. "I've never been much of a fighter, but now…."

"People follow leaders. People that will protect them where they can't protect themselves."

Smart boy. Maybe he wasn't as naive as Robert had originally thought. "Revenants can't do much against that gun of yours, I'd reckon."

Josiah's hand moved to touch the hilt of Peacemaker, his fingers running along his father's initials. "But you could intercede for them. We can find a balance that allows for time. I put the worst of the worst down as they come at me, and all the while we look for a different way to break it."

Robert pressed his lips together thoughtfully. "Your father'd've gone at it head on."

"I'm not him. If this is going to work, I have to do it my way. The thing that remains is that I need your help. Do I have it?"

Blue eyes met grey and Robert watched him carefully, taking in every twitch, every small move. This was dangerous. It could go wrong at so many points. Lou was a dangerous loose end, and the moment that Robert started to make a move for power Lou would be right there claiming to have done something to help. They had to be careful.

"First rule would have to be that you and I never meet in public, not till things are set."

"A fair rule."

"And second, if… _when_ we find another way to break this curse, another way for me to break free, you won't hesitate. You'll let me go."

Silence spread between them for a long moment and finally Josiah nodded, extending his hand. "I will."

Robert reached forward and grasped it, the shake between them solidifying the secret alliance, and the Revenant wasn't sure if he'd paved the way to his salvation or his final damnation with the deal struck.

"I have to get back… there's a lot to do and Sheriff Barkley wants to deputize me first thing tomorrow. The man's just lookin' for a way out."

"He never signed up for this."

"But I did," Josiah said firmly. "I will fix this." He held Robert's gaze for a moment and finally started to turn, pausing halfway around. "You said Robert Svane is dead…. What do you go by now?"

"Bobo."

The young Earp turned his nose up. "That's strange."

Robert shrugged. "It was given to me. Who am I to turn it down?"

"Just Bobo?"

"Working on finding more. Anything but who I was. He's gone, and I gotta learn to live with that. No reason to hold onto a dead man's name."

Josiah nodded slowly. "Best of luck to you, Bobo. This will work."

With that bold statement he turned and left into the night, Robert standing there alone in the woods with hope and dread weighing down heavy on his shoulders.

* * *

 

Notes: I've been thinking a lot about Josiah Earp lately and this happened. It did my heart some good to have at least one Earp following after Robert for once instead of the other way around.


End file.
